Food Folk Eatery (McArthur Glen)

Okay, so this is my first post in a long time and in fact, my first time "eating out" since mid-March.  I was invited to try out 3 of the food options located in the Food Folk Eatery at McArthur Glen.  Many of you are already familiar with Hula Poke and Chachi's Sandwiches, however this is the first location of Dirtbelly in the GVRD.  Originally from Calgary, Dirtbelly offers up fresh salads loaded with greens and grains. In fact, this is the first time that all 3 of them are in one food hall within BC.  Worked for me as I could try them all and outside in the fresh air as well!

Since I've never had Dirtybelly before, I quickly dug into their Jerk Warm Bowl consisting of savoury rice, kale, red pepper, spiced pineapple, yam, cilantro, green onion, coconut flakes, Thai green chilis and jerk coconut crema.  So you know how when something is advertised as spicy and it isn't?  Well, not this one.  My mouth was on fire from the green chilis. This was strangely satisifying with firm chewy rice that was aromatic and of course spicy.  Lots of different textures and flavours at play here.

I added a simple Fieldberry Salad to represent the salad portion of their menu.  Sure, there were many other more elaborate choices, but the combination of spinach, romaine, carrot, cranberries, blueberries, almonds, pumpkin seeds, feta and 1/2 avocado in a raspberry poppyseed vinaigrette sounded light and refreshing.  That it was and it was not overdressed.  A good combination of sweet and tanginess combined with the pops of blueberry and sweetness from the dried cranberries.

Onto some creations from Hula Poke, we tried the Tiki first.  This continued the spiciness with a bevy of red chilis accompanying togarashi sauce, cucumber, green onion, edamame, crispy onion, black sesame, cilantro, kale and tuna atop coconut rice.  Yes, my mouth was still on fire from the Jerk, now it really needed some of the drinks served on the side.  Unlike almost all of the other poke spots in town, Hula offers the choice between traditional sushi rice or a blend of jasmine and basmati rice.  With this bowl, we had the coconut rice and it was much lighter and fluffier.

Again, to get something that was less spicy, we also tried the Yuzu with ginger sesame, avocado, cucumber, edamame, carrot, furikake, black sesame, crispy onion, kale and salmon.  They weren't shy about dressing the poke and the potency of flavours were a result.  A good combination of sweet, tangy and savoury.  I thought the fluffy rice was a good match to the dressing and the generous topping of kale.  Much like the Tiki, the fish was in large chunks and appealingly textured.

For our sandwiches at Chachi's we began with the Chili Chicken with sweet chili sauce, jalapeno, cilantro, cucumber, spicy mayo and red onion.  This was essentially crispy chicken strips doused in a sweet glaze and placed within ciabatta.  Solid sandwich, but the addition of jalapeno up the spiciness.  Lots of flavour from the cilantro and onion as well.  Yes, this was fine and dandy, yet my favourite sammie at Chachi's was the last thing we had.

The Pork with Mac is the sandwich to get at Chachi's in my opinion.  I've had it a few times in the past and it consists of sweet pulled pork, sweet chili BBQ sauce and mac n' cheese.  This was predictably messy where the pork was tender and saucy.  I would've preferred the noodles to be a bit more al dente, but the cheese really helped compliment the sweet BBQ sauce.  Best of all, the aggressively toasted ciabatta easily stayed intact to hold all that sauciness inside.  Overall, I already knew that Hula Poke and Chachi's were going to be good.  What surprised me was the warm bowl from Dirtbelly.  Super tasty and filling (and there wasn't any meat!).  Nice to see some new choices at McArthur Glen.

*All food and beverages were complimentary

The Good:

- 3 completely different food choices all in one place

- Lots of choice

- Spicy means spicy

The Bad:

- Could use a bit more seating when it gets busy, but you can just eat in the mall too